Who better to do a review and breakdown of Mad Max: Fury Road than are own tamed (if not tamed, then at least mostly housebroken) Australian? There are spoilers below. If you haven’t yet seen it and don’t want to ruin it for yourself, check out this Gratuitous Hawt Ink instead. Let us know what you thought of the movie in the comments. Mad Duo

Review: Mad Max: Fury Road 

Apocalypse Josh

I’ve been pondering what, if anything, to write about this movie. I grew up mostly overseas, away from my native Australia. When Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome came out in 1985 I was nine and living in the UK, about to move back to Australia for the second time. Being a 8-9 year old Australian ex-pat in the UK at the time I had Mad Max, the 1981 Galipoli movie, and pre-Crocodile Dundee Paul Hogan as my cultural identifiers. The Mad Max movies were rather seminal in my appreciation of what it meant to be Australian (read into that what you will), my views on prepping, survival and self-reliance. So, as you might imagine, I had high hopes and expectations for the new Mad Max movie.

I’m not so much going to critique its story or plotlines (which I enjoyed), its cinematography (amazing) or even the sets, props and setting (tremendous) although I will touch on them all. Instead, I’m going to write about the cultures portrayed. Hopefully, that will pretty much leave you with a spoiler-free review, rich with material to consider.

The World:

Oil Wars then Water Wars raged and ended as resources literally dried up and were lost, first by the wars themselves which escalated to nuclear exchanges, then the environmental disasters that followed. Fallout is not explicitly mentioned, but I’ll get to that when it comes to the people.

Civilization – All regulated civilization, recognizable national governments and services are long gone by the time the movie begins. Cities are emptied and abandoned, roads and infrastructure are gone. Manufacturing is all but gone, salvage and recycling are the golden rules for materiel.

Weather – With the loss of potable and agricultural water, which appears to be a widespread and catastrophic, we see vast deserts and dust bowl conditions. Vast storm fronts roll over the land with sufficient force to destroy medium sized vehicles outright, and with enough frequency that travelers have masks and goggles handy and use them with casual efficiency that tells of lots of practice.

Water – Water is almost if not more valuable resource than fuel, much as it was represented in Thunderdome (and Tank Girl). It is the basis of the major antagonist’s (Immortan Joe) power, and is used to great effect by his gratuitous display of turning it on and off for his followers.

Food – As I often say, where there is water, there is life. Where there is no water, there is no life. With no arable land and no water, where does the food come from? They grow it very carefully and securely. This brings us to the Factions.

The Factions:

The Citadel – Immortan Joe’s Citadel is based around what appears to be the remnants of an aquifer pumping station. They have vast reserves of water, literally to tap, and we get a good look at the layout of their stronghold. High, virtually unassailable mesa honey-combed with tunnels and caverns, including hydroponic farms, controlled environment vaults and enough space to house an army. They have water, food and manpower. Throngs of peasants live outside the Citadel, dependent on the water and food provided, and also opportunities to improve their station in life. Soldiers, workers, breeders and “milkers”. (yep, be on the look out for the hu-cows), and “Mothers-Milk” references. Without water and food, there are no people.

Guzzoline Town – Source of fuel for triumvirate of power, they produce the guzzoline (read petrol/gasoline) guzzled by all the various bikes, cars, trucks and rigs in the movie. They trade with the other two major Factions for their valuable commodity, and presumably have to import everything else. Without fuel, you can’t move anything across this wasteland. You can’t mobilize your armies, warbands or scouts. Producing fuel takes skill and resources, so their power base is secure and essential for all three Factions.

Bullet Farm– We don’t see much about Bullet Farm. But from what we do see, and from the name, we can assume it’s a weapons and munitions manufacturing facility. In the wasteland we see that ammunition is precious and not always reliable. Having a manufacturing base lets you arm your army, so they have a solid power-base as well, but are ultimately dependent on both the Citadel for food and water and Guzzoline Town for fuel and transport. They can certainly arm and front a mighty force, but without fuel of food they wouldn’t be able to function. Nor could The Citadel or Guzzoline Town protect their interests without Bullet Town’s bullets.

Raiders – Bands of scavengers unaffiliated with the three factions roam the wasteland preying on the convoys, picking off stragglers and no doubt raiding the three Factions from time to time. Highly mobile, poorly equipped and desperate, they probably represent the most regular threats to the factions or others in the Wilderness.

Loners – This is where Max falls. He’s on his own, doing his own thing, surviving just for himself and by himself. He is outside of civilisation, such as it is, and wants nothing more than to be alone. Who knows how many loners still exist in Max’s world, but odds are they’re few in number given the hardship they face.

Classes:

Faction Head – The Triumvirate are lead in turn by Immortan Joe, The People Eater and The Bullet Farmer. They rule their own domains, and only by their truce and personal history is their world held together. Immortan Joe has his own Valhalla cult to perpetuate his power, and strives to create a pure and non fallout-contaminated bloodline with his wives.

Imperator – These are the commanders of the Factions, charged with overseeing operations and trusted with both secrets and access. They get the best equipment, vehicles and even cybernetic/prosthetic repairs.

Wives – Joe’s prized breeding stock and presumably parents (in some iteration) to some of the other members of Joe’s Faction (at least Rictus Erectus). They may also represent a breeding program to repopulate the world, or at least Immortan Joe’s little part of it, with mutation-free offspring.

WarBoyz / WarDogs – Joe has filled his Citadel with his followers the WarBoys, who follow the Cult of the V8 (look for the hands clasped in prayer with eight fingers up, with their sacred wheel icons and brands). They’re also called the Half-Life boys (probably due to radiations sickness) and are motivated by desire to gain access to Valhalla by performing well and dying in glory for Joe. They are all shaved-headed (or bald) and white-washed. They engage in strange cultish behavior, like spraying their mouths with chrome paint to be “Shiny and Chrome”, and call out “Witness me!” when they commit their final brave acts to ensure entry into Valhalla. Not bad for a loyal army of disposable soldiers.

WarPups – The Citadel is filled with too-young-to-fight kids done up like the WarBoys, doing tasks around the Citadel. They serve, earn their places and hope to eventually be promoted to WarBoy status.

Mechanics – The makers, repairers and resurrection artists of old and broken technology. Called “black-thumbs”, they are a valuable and necessary part of their community, and are valuable even to other Factions.

The great unwashed – The peasants that live around the Citadel (and other Faction towns) who try to gain entry, curry favour, beg for food and generally be pathetic hangers-on and a potential workforce. They also represent a breeding pool, and source of more specific resources (Mothers Milk, for one)

BloodBags – This is one of the interesting aspects in Fury Road. Because the WarBoys/ HalfLife Boys are apparently chronically radiation poisoned and suffer from what appears to be leukemia, they capture and harvest donors to rejuvenate and refresh the ailing HalfLife boys. Early on, Max is found to be a universal donor marking him as a very valuable commodity, even given his savage reactions.

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Gear:

The kit – Salvaged and many-times repaired is the order of the day. Nothing new, fresh or in fact “Shiny and Chrome” except for a very few precious items. Given the desire to reach Valhalla and impress Joe, the WarBoys forsake almost any kind of protective gear other than masks and goggles. Imperator Furiosa sports a prosthetic arm, and both Immortan Joe and his son, Rictus, sport lavish air-filtration systems, to keep them contaminant free.

The vehicles – Almost characters in their own right, the vehicles of Fury Road hold true to the legacy of the first thee movies. Heavily modified, performance and off-road capable, with arms and armour as you’d expect, as well as nitrous enhancements and lots of turbo charging to boot.

The weapons – Guns are few and far between, with only bosses and heroes wielding them. The majority of the fighters have wrist-crossbows, spears and hand-weapons we’ve come to expect from Mad Max movies. Ammunition is a critical resource, and you feel every bullet the main characters have (with the exception of the Bullet Town bosses party, but hey, they MAKE the bullets, why not go a bit overboard). Explosive tipped lances were a nice touch though, and the brutality of the world is really indicated by the way people fight.

Mad Max Fury Road had an effect on us. We’re parent-types who grew up with with end of the Cold War and all the Apocalyptic cinema that came with it, and when we went to see it we took two young friends who were fresh to the genre, plus a Tactical Baby who didn’t think it was funny when I laughed at the car-crashes. We watched it at the drive-in, in costume, and loved it. We were captivated by the cinematography, the action, and the impact of it all. We were left with just one question… “Who killed the world?”

We did.

WITNESS!

Mad Duo, Breach-Bang& CLEAR!

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About the Author: Josh Orth is a second generation expat currently dwelling in the arguably civilized outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. He’s lived in deserts, jungles and urban sprawls around the world and traveled/adventured into assorted inhospitable places around the world and has a keen sense of the speed with which the trappings of ‘civilized Western life’ can disappear. This has led him to begin writing about his interests and observations when it comes to the gear, skills and other necessities of self reliance of being equipped for whatever a capricious, occasionally indurate life might throw at him. This isn’t by any means to say our eccentric friend truly experiences genuine vorfreude about dystopian life, but if he had to he might not complain. Read more by Josh at Apocalypse Equipped.

Grunts: vorfreude.

We’re not saying Josh flies a PL-12 Airtruk. We’re just saying this guy and Josh have never been seen in the same room together at the same time.